Most surveys about sex find impossibly that men have had far more partners than women, typically two to four times as many.

Either there are a bunch of phantom females out there, or somebody is lying.

Or perhaps people just have lousy memories about these things.

Psychologist Norman R. Brown at the University of Michigan has done several studies on the apparent flaw in these surveys. The latest was a web-based survey of 2,065 heterosexual non-virgins with a median age in their late 40s.

The women reported on average 8.6 lifetime sexual partners. The men claimed 31.9.

Rather than let it go at that, Brown and his colleagues later in the survey asked the participants to rate the truthfulness of their response. About 5 percent—both men and women—said they lied. In addition, more than 10 percent said they knew their answer wasn't accurate.

"They gave an answer and then two minutes later admitted they had lied about the answer," Brown said.

But there's more to the discrepancy. Men and women use different methods to calculate their past dalliances.

Women rely on a raw count, a method Brown says is known to result in underestimation.

"They tend to say, 'I just know,' and if you ask them to explain how they know, they say, 'Well, there was John, Tom, etc.'"

Men also rely on a flawed strategy.

"Men are twice as likely to use rough approximation to answer the question," Brown said. "And rough approximation is a strategy known to produce over-estimation."

Then again, maybe Brown's study is flawed, too.

His next survey will be done by telephone, to find out if people lie and fudge as much in that medium, or if the Web-based surveys invite such behavior. The self-proclaimed liars "could be liars who lie about lying," he said

sounds about right.

Then where are mines???!!!

Statistically, though, it's very possible and probable...if one man has sex with five different women, and each of those women only have sex with that one man, then when he answers he will say he's had five partners, while each one of the women will say they've had one.

Byron said:

true ...

Mach said:

Of course that falls apart when you have 5 men and 5 women...lol

Isn't there a sayin' 'bout that when a man tells you how many women he's slept with, divide that number by 3 to get his real answer?
And that for a woman, multiply it by 3 for hers.

Where can I find these undersexed women?

althom said:

whore.

notoriousj said:

They'll do too!

Mach said:

or it's just that men are having sex with each other

YOUR ALL WHORES!!

Byron said:

Exactly.

I've only had one.

the reason why men report more sex partners than woman is simple..Men tend to masterbate more..with that said the imagination and the sick world of fantasy convices the man that he has sex with said person..sexuality is a bore people.

notoriousj said:

SLUT

I don't believe it ;
I think women will be less likely to admit they slept around